This is a proposal to support young investigators from the United States and registration fees for all the speakers to attend the International Conference entitled Alcoholism and Stress: A Framework for Future Treatment Strategies. This Congress will be one of the first international meetings directed at bridging ongoing independent programs on stress mechanisms and alcoholism in Europe and the USA. We expect that it will be of broad interest to basic and clinical researchers around the world. The meeting will be held on May 6-8, 2008 in Volterra, Pisa, Italy. The attractive location of the meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for scientists from the USA to present and discuss their research with international colleagues and also provide opportunities for new collaborative research. The target audience consists of clinicians and researchers interested in the advancement of biomedical research on alcoholism and alcohol-related biomedical phenomena with the goal of developing new and innovative treatment strategies. This meeting will give participants the chance to present their latest findings related to alcohol and stress research through abstract, symposia, and roundtable submissions, as well as plenary lectures. Most importantly, it will provide a unique opportunity for alcohol researchers from all over the world to meet on a personal level and interact with pharmaceutical researchers to develop drug strategies for alcoholism treatment. Approximately 150 attendees are expected from all over the world, including, but not limited to the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. This application requests funding for travel and registration fee for 20 US scientists to attend this important meeting on Stress and Alcohol. This application also requests coverage of registration fee for the invited speakers and for publication costs. [unreadable] [unreadable] Relevance to Public Health: Alcoholism is an etiologically and clinically heterogeneous disorder in which compulsive alcohol seeking and use represent core symptoms. Environmental stress has been recognized as one of the major factors for alcohol abuse, including binge drinking and alcohol dependence. However, the interaction between environmental stress and heritable factors in the development of alcoholism is still largely unexplored. Understanding the nature of this interaction in regulating individual risk of becoming an alcohol abuser represents a major challenge in this research area and may provide invaluable help for the development of preventive strategies or pharmacotherapeutic remedies. This application seeks funding from NIAAA to enable American and foreign scientists to attend the World Conference entitled Alcoholism and Stress: A Framework for Future Treatment Strategies. The aim of this meeting is to bridge ongoing independent programs on alcoholism and stress mechanisms in Europe and the United States of America (USA). [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]